Enough is Enough
by JannaKalderash
Summary: Loki has had enough of his treatment at the hands of the Allfather and the rest of Asgard. So what does he do?  He books it, of course! Starring Kid!Loki, Thor, Buffy, et al. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

15

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

By Raggedygal

Loki looked at the tower room he was about to vacate, noting with a pleased expression that it was as neat as a pin: the bed was made perfectly, there was no dust anywhere, and even the bookshelves were clean.

His latrine was spotless, and furnished with clean towels, a new bar of soap and toothbrush, as well as toothpaste.

He looked down at the magically expanded bag that he'd had one of the dwarves make for him and smirked. In that bag was every book of magic that he'd managed to collect in his long life, as well as a few odds and ends that he had picked up in France as a street hustler.

The missive that he had labored over for the past few weeks was ready to go straight to the bottom of the Allfather's inbox, and once it was signed and sealed, he was free.

Free of Asgard, free of the hatred, free of his former stepfather, and free of his enemies.

After the events with the God of Fear messing with the minds of mortal and immortal alike, the boy had come to realize that staying here in the Nine Realms was an exercise in futility.

In his former adult life, he'd been stubbornly determined to not be driven off like an unwanted stray dog, but now, with his whole life ahead of him, he realized that if he stayed, he'd become the same bitter, twisted prick he had been the first time around.

So, he had decided to cut all of his ties to Asgard except one. He wasn't about to cut himself loose from his big brother, Thor, who had gone against everyone in Asgard, and even his own judgment to bring Loki back from the dead. Although Loki probably could have managed that sooner or later, even without his brother's intervention.

Still, it was nice to have someone that loved him. Odin certainly didn't. Neither did his wife Frigga, or any of the royal court. There was too much bad blood and too many long memories for them to ever accept Loki back amongst them, even as a child.

He picked up the bag, slung it over his shoulder, and left the tower room forever. On his way out of the palace, he covertly placed the missive that renounced his place in the royal succession and as a citizen of Asgard at the bottom of the inbox in the Allfather's office.

Knowing Odin, he wouldn't get to it until a couple of days passed, and even then, the old man had the deplorable habit of not reading a lot of the stuff he signed. Once it was signed and had Odin's seal upon it, not even Odin could change the decree and bring him back.

Loki had done his homework when it came to fomenting this little plot. It had existed as the germ of an idea at the back of his brain for centuries, but he had never been unhappy enough to actually go through with it.

As he left the royal palace, his familiar, Ikol flew down and alit upon his right shoulder.

"Well, I did it, Ikol. I'm out of here. Thor is going to be royally pissed when he finds out that I've flown the coop, but I've caused him enough trouble already. He's better off without me in his life."

The magpie squawked, "He loves you, Master."

"I know that, and I love him. But I don't want him to keep fighting with the Allfather over me. It's not worth it. Without me there, they have nothing to fight about, so everything will be all right."

Ikol said nothing as his master continued to walk toward the rainbow bridge. He was against this plan, but honestly couldn't think of anything else for the boy to do.

Surrounded by people who quite literally hated him, and would happily kill him, the smart thing to do was leave and start over elsewhere.

"How will you get past Heimdall? He guards the bridge against those who do not have the Allfather's permission." The magpie asked.

"Something I picked up from reading Harry Potter fanfiction. It's called a Notice-Me-Not spell, and it can be used to disguise oneself from one's enemies. They literally don't notice that you're there."

"That's fanfiction; this is real life." Ikol retorted.

"Pfffft! I've been practicing. It's how I managed to get to the dwarves, so that they could make my backpack. It works perfectly fine, so stop worrying."

Loki worked the small enchantment, and very cautiously walked past Heimdall. To his great relief, the great golden eyes took no notice of the small godling as he walked over the bridge.

Once he was far enough away, both master and familiar heaved sighs of relief.

"All right Master Cleverclogs, now that we're on our way, where are we going? Back to France so you can hang out near the nude beaches and ogle all the mortal babes in their birthday suits?"

"Nope, that'd be the first place that Thor would look. I'm going someplace even better. Another dimension where there are no Avengers, X-men, or even Asgard except in comic books, legends and myths."

"WHAT? ARE YOU CRAZY?"

"Pretty much," the boy said, "Heimdall will use his accursed sight to find me if I go to the Midgard that everyone is used to. But, if I were to go to another Midgard, he can't find me."

The logic was indisputable, but the magpie knew that with his trouble-magnet, not to mention trouble-maker of a master, things would not be easy.

"How are you to take care of yourself? Some see only a child, and would treat you accordingly. You'd get pushed into one of those horrid prisons that they call foster homes faster than you could blink."

"That is certainly true, if they knew I was there. Fortunately, I have made my plans. There is a version of Midgard where there are Champions, but they are of a special type."

"They started in a place called Sunnydale, California, and it all began with a girl named Buffy Summers…."

The rainbow bridge finally came to an end in the area of the British Isles called Scotland, not too far from a certain castle, where the Queen of Slayers and her friends lived.

Loki had done his homework on this dimension; it was dangerous, filled with demons, vampires and the like, but the heroes here were more to his liking. He stepped off of the bridge, and sat down on a rock to catch his breath.

Although nearly immortal, and very sturdy, he was also considerably younger than he had been, and his stamina was nowhere near the levels he had possessed in his former adulthood.

Loki reached into a backpack and pulled out a large loaf of bread, some goat's milk cheese and good cooked ham, and a canteen of water. He fed Ikol some of the bread, cheese and ham first, and then fed himself.

As he ate, he waited. If his calculations had been correct, and Loki was no idiot, the Seers at the castle would have felt his coming, and informed either Buffy or Willow or one of the other residents of his arrival.

His mind wandered to his brother, who was busy with the clean up from the attack of the Worthy, Skadi, and the God of Fear. He was the one person that Loki would miss the most, and it hurt to think of the heartbreak that he was causing his brother by his leaving.

Tears came to his eyes as he realized that he probably would never see his brother again, even though he tried to force them back. Unfortunately, all of the loneliness and pain that he had been feeling over the past few months caught up to him, and he started to cry.

The poor child was so caught up in his grief, he never noticed the one eyed man walk up to him.

The older man was dressed in a military style sweater, dark cargo pants tucked into combat boots, and he was armed with an axe strapped to his back, several wooden stakes in his belt, and a wicked looking knife up his sleeve.

The last thing he expected was to see a small kid sitting on a rock, with a magpie on his shoulder, crying bitterly.

"Hey there," Xander Harris said gently, "What's the matter kid? Are you lost?"

"N-n-no, I'm not lost. I'm running away from home. They hate me there, so I left." Loki sobbed out, thoroughly miserable.

"Are you sure? What could you have done that's so bad, everyone would hate a kid like you? What's your name anyway?"

"Loki Laufeyson," was the answer, and Xander Harris froze.

Being a confessed comic book geek, and up to date on all of the big titles in question, Xander knew perfectly well about Loki's reputation in the comic book. However, just because the kid had the same name as the character, it didn't mean that it was him.

Plus, his Hyena was distressed by the scent that he was picking up from the kid. The boy was genuinely unhappy; more than likely afraid, and probably lost, no matter what he claimed.

"My name is Xander Harris, and I'd like to be your friend. Would you like that?"

A pair of red rimmed green eyes looked up at him, and Xander could see all of the pain that was in the child's soul.

'No kid should have that kind of pain, no matter who he is.' The former Zeppo thought, and focused on the boy again as he began to speak.

"Are you sure you want to be my friend? I've done bad things, and I don't want to do them anymore, but they seem to follow me anyway."

"I'm sure. Why don't you come to the castle with me? It isn't all that far, and we can give you something more to eat than bread, cheese and water."

The magpie spoke up then, "You will not harm us?"

Knowing a magical animal when he saw one, Xander replied, "I promise. I won't hurt either you or your master. Here, blow your nose." And he handed Loki a wad of Kleenex to do just that.

Loki blew his nose with a loud honk, and then picked up his backpack once again, slinging it on his back.

"Are you sure your friends won't mind?" he asked.

"I'm sure. We've all done bad things at one point or another in our lives. Besides, whatever it was that you did is in the past. As long as you don't hurt any of us, we'll be copa and scetic."

"Okay."


	2. Chapter 2

18

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Chapter 2

By Raggedygal

Xander and Loki's arrival at the Slayer compound was met with a contingent of five slayers loaded for bear, three witches, Rupert Giles, Buffy, and Dawn.

One of the witches, a Hispanic teenager named Lucinda Torres held up a glowing amulet and stated, "One human; threat level: zero. Power level: indeterminate. One non-human; threat level: unknown. Power level: low to medium. You may pass."

"Did you ask for the password Lu?" Xander asked, and the girl smirked at him.

"Did you get the new one from Security?" she snarked and he grinned at her.

"Good girl! For that, you get a cookie. There should be a fresh batch in the kitchen."

"Yay!" she squealed and ran for the kitchen ahead of the other witches who were all clamoring to get the first one.

"Giles, Buffy, everyone; this is Loki Laufeyson. He's from Asgard."

Giles' eyes went wide and he immediately fell back on his old habit of cleaning his glasses to deal with the stress.

Buffy raised an eyebrow and asked, "Is that supposed to mean something?" proving once more that she had done no more than skim the mythology that they had all read in high school.

Giles sighed in an exasperated fashion; he knew that she wasn't stupid, but she wasn't always the sharpest knife in the drawer either.

"Buffy, Loki Laufeyson is one of the major players in Norse mythology. He was the God of Fire, Chaos, Thieves, Liars and Change. Rather like Janus from the Roman pantheon."

She looked the pre-teen over critically, and said, "Wasn't he supposed to be evil?"

"I was," Loki said, not liking to be talked about as if he wasn't right there. "I'm trying to be better."

"Are you a threat to us?" she asked, and he shook his head in the negative.

"What about your birdie?"

"He's no threat."

Ikol made a sound rather like a disparaging sniff, and stated, "I am a familiar, not a _birdie_!"

"Sorrrry!" Buffy said, not really liking the snotty magpie.

"Let's get you something to eat, Loki" Xander stated, "You've had a long journey from Asgard."

Dawn smiled at him; he was just the cutest little boy she had seen! Bright green eyes, finely sculpted features, and judging from his eyelashes and brows, probably black hair to go with it.

"Hi! I'm Dawn Summers. Don't mind Buffy, it's that time of the month for her, so she's a bit on the snotty side."

"DAWN!"

"Suck it up and deal; go take a Midol or something and become human again." The younger woman stated, gently steering the small godling toward the castle and its vast kitchens.

"You're in luck tonight; Andrew, who is one of our Watchers, and a really great cook, decided on Italian food tonight. You ever have pasta?"

"I used to sneak away from Asgard every so often when I was bigger; just to get away from the monotony of the food. Roast boar is nice, don't get me wrong. But not every day! There wasn't a whole lot of variety at the Allfather's table."

"Well, you are in for a treat," she told him as she guided him through the main entrance and down one of the corridors to the kitchens. "Tonight he made Fettuccini Alfredo with chicken cutlets, and fresh bread on the side."

"Cool!"

While they were on their way, Xander was in a short debriefing in the main office. He told them about how he had found the boy crying, and the genuine feelings of distress that he had picked up from him.

"My guess is; he's from an alternate reality." Xander stated, "One where the heroes of the Marvel comics are real. Judging from the way he's dressed, I'd lay money on it."

"But how did he end up as a kid?" Willow asked, "If he's as old as the legends say, he's got to be at least a couple of millennia old by now. Certainly that's enough time to reach maturity!"

Xander shook his head, "I didn't get the full story from him. He's too upset right now at the situation he was escaping from to say much, and I don't want to push him too far or alienate him this early in the game."

"So what do you suggest, Xander?" Giles asked, "Even if he is a child with rather lower levels of power than he's used to, he can still probably be quite formidable."

"We take care of him like we take care of the other kids, Giles. How many of them ran away from home because of the attitude of their so-called 'families', because they were different? I haven't had much time to keep up with the current title of 'Thor' lately, but it always seemed to me that Loki got a raw deal in his life."

"How so?" Buffy asked, "He's a god isn't he? Sounds like a sweet deal to me."

"It's not. For one thing, he's not a god, his parents were Frost Giants. In the comic, he was rejected by his father, Laufey, because he was very small when he was born, compared to his two older brothers. Not long after that, Laufey got into a battle with Odin, and the whole family was wiped out, except for Loki, who was still a baby at the time."

"Odin took him in, ostensibly to raise as his own, but I always did wonder if the old man didn't have some sort of agenda up his sleeve. Loki was raised alongside of Odin's bloodson, Thor, who was at least five years older."

"Now, the publishers never went into too much detail about Loki's life, but it wasn't altogether a happy one. People were always throwing his parentage in his face, telling him that he didn't belong with the Aesir, telling him that he'd follow in the same steps as his father and brothers, and that Odin would have been better off smashing his head in or cutting his throat."

Buffy's lips tightened at that statement. No child ever deserved to hear that kind of crap in its life, no matter how bad their parents were.

"You think the kid was set up to become bad from the get go, Xander?" Willow asked, fingering a pen that was on the table in front of her.

"Pretty much. The kid is ostracized by his father because of his size, and amongst his adopted kin, he's ostracized because of his parents. Not only that, he had a talent for mischief and was always pulling stunts."

At that, Giles snorted in derision. "ALL children get into mischief and pull stunts." He declared, "I was no angel as a child and got into all sorts of escapades. I did more than my fair share of stupid stunts as a young man and managed to grow out of them. You children can all say the same thing. There's not one child in this castle, grown or not, who hasn't pulled something outrageously stupid in their life. More often than not, it's their way of getting attention from their parents."

"Yeah well, he also had his brother's accomplishments thrown in his face practically every day. Asgardians value strength, nobility, bravery and all that kind of stuff."

Lorne, an anagogic demon from the dimension of Pylea, and the only survivor of the Massacre of LA, spoke up.

"What about ingenuity, cleverness, good humor, artistic ability and all that kind of stuff? If you'd like, I could have him sing for me to get a reading on his emotions and intentions."

Buffy nodded, "That's perfect Lorne; but for now, we simply take the kid in, and make sure that he's all right. I want one of the doctor's on call to give him an examination in the morning, and make sure he hasn't been abused physically. After that, Lorne, you can have him sing for you. Once all that is done, we see if there's any room in the boy's dorms for him."

"We should also have him tested scholastically to get an idea as to what kind of education he's had. I know that he's been thoroughly educated in magic, but other than that, I have no clue." Xander stated.

"He'll also need clothes; he can't wear what he's got on all the time. He'll eventually grow out of those things, the way that most boys do." Willow said.

The group broke up and Xander went to the kitchens to find Dawn and Loki.

The sight that greeted him made him smile; Andrew, after finding out who Loki was, had gone all out to impress the young godling when it came to the food.

Loki was right now working his way through the Fettuccini Alfredo, the chicken cutlets and bread with gusto, and there was a large glass of milk beside the plate, already half empty going by the milk mustache on the boy's face.

"Hey Xander, what's the what?" Dawn asked when she spotted him. As always, she had put something totally unexpected and a little bit gross on her food. She had topped off the noodles with sweet pickle relish, ketchup and mustard, and was happily eating the odd concoction; much to Andrew's horror, and Loki's humor.

"Well, we decided that you can stay here, Loki. We're not about to let you go anywhere by yourself just yet. Tomorrow morning, you're going to be examined by one of our doctors, and you're also going to sing for Lorne. He's a great guy, but don't get too freaked out if he gives you a cutesy nickname. He does it with everyone."

"Okay. He's the anagogic demon, right? The one with the frosted hair, and horns?"

"Yuppers, that's him all right. How do you like the food?"

"It's great! I like it just the way it is; I don't know why Dawn wants to put all that stuff on hers though."

"That's just me kiddo," the former Key explained, "I like to put different tastes and textures on my food."

"More like gross and disgusting tastes and textures," Andrew said with a scowl. "I go through all the trouble of cooking this dish to perfection, and what does she do? She smothers it with relish, ketchup and mustard! BAH!"

Loki giggled at the expression on the older man's face. While he would never be thought of as intimidating by a long shot, it was never a good idea to insult a cook by adding superfluous stuff to his cooking.

Once he was through with his dinner, Loki was given a set of pajamas, and guided to a bathroom, where he stopped and stared in sheer awe.

Even his own bathroom in his tower hadn't looked anything like this!

The tub itself looked as if it had come straight from a Las Vegas superhotel; big enough to hold at least ten people and four feet deep!

The shower stall had multiple heads, and as many settings on them. There was an assortment of shampoos, body washes, soaps, shaving gels, lotions, toothpastes, and other paraphernalia.

"WOW!" was all the boy could say before he stripped off his clothing and jumped into the full tub, sending water splashing everywhere.

There was even a selection of tub toys for him to play with! Submarines, boats, rubber duckies, octopi, and even a couple of dolphins were lined up by the side of the tub.

He had an excellent time playing with the toys, as well as getting himself cleaned up. He had become rather grubby from cleaning up his old room, and hadn't taken the opportunity to clean up before leaving.

Loki didn't leave the tub until his hands and feet were all pruney, and his hair was so clean it squeaked. He dried off, dressed in the pajamas, which had a badger motif on them, brushed his teeth, and used his very oversized towel to sop up the water on the floor.

Yawning profusely, he left the bathroom, and Xander gently led him to a guest room decorated for small boys. Loki crawled into the bed, and was asleep within minutes,

When Xander turned off the light, the ambient magic in the room activated, and the pitch darkness was replaced with a dim night light effect upon the walls. These were magical holograms of acrobats, trapeze artists, airplanes zooming silently, and pixies flying every which way.

"Good night Loki," he said, even though he knew the child couldn't hear him. "Pleasant dreams."


	3. Chapter 3

18

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Chapter Three

By Raggedygal

It was the morning sunlight hitting him in the eyes that woke Loki up the next morning. He blinked at the brightness, and yawned hugely, stretching underneath the comforter like a large cat. He rolled over onto his back, and blinked up at the ceiling, noticing the effects of the night light spell for the first time.

'Huh', he thought, 'I never had anything like that when I was a kid the first time. I think I'm going to like it here.'

Someone knocked on the door, and when he called out, "Come in!" the door opened to admit Dawn Summers, carrying a pile of boy's clothing in her arms.

"Hey there, glad to see you're awake. Breakfast is ready downstairs, and I warn you, Slayers have enormous appetites, so you'd better get dressed otherwise you will have to fight off a bunch of hungry adolescent girls." She placed the clothing on a chair, and a pair of sneakers on the floor.

"We keep boys' clothes in stock due to having a lot of male students that are either mages-in-training, Watchers-in-training, or warriors-in-training. One of the spells that was used last night gave us an idea as to what size you wear, so everything should fit."

Loki got out of the bed in his badger pajamas, and walked over to the chair to examine the clothing. It consisted of several t-shirts, both with long and short sleeves; three pairs of jeans, underpants, socks, and even an emerald green hoodie that was perfect for him.

"Thank you," he said, impressed by their kindness. "Give me five minutes to get dressed, and then I'll be right out for breakfast. Could you show me the way to get there again? This place is like a maze."

"Sure thing, that's not a problem. When I first came here, I kept getting lost too. The only time I didn't was when I was during the time I was in Italy, finishing my education."

She briefly exited the room, so that he could get dressed without the embarrassment of being watched by an older girl. While Loki liked girls in the abstract, he sure as heck didn't want one to watch him while he changed out of his jammies!

He managed to dress in less than five minutes, and a couple of minutes after that, the two of them were happily on their way to the main hall.

Before they were halfway there, an assortment of aromas hit his sensitive nose; pancakes, bacon, sausages, toasted muffins, eggs, ham, and other goodies being cooked all made his stomach growl in anticipation.

The kids were all gathered around an assortment of tables in the main hall, chattering away as they ate. As Loki and Dawn entered, a great many of the heads present looked up, looked them over, and went back to their business.

A lot of the younger Slayers-in-training looked at Loki with appreciative gleams in their eyes. They might be too young for anything more than looking right now, but in a few years time, the young godling would probably be fighting most of them off with a stick.

A girl his age, or a little bit older got up from one of the tables and approached them.

"Hi Miss Dawn, is this the new kid? My housemother asked us to make him feel welcome."

"He sure is Raven; Loki, this is Raven O'Connor from the U.S., she's both a Slayer and a witch in training. She'll get you situated at her table, okay?"

Loki looked Raven over; she was about his physical age, or a little bit older, with curly black hair that reached her shoulders. Her eyes were a violet-grey color, surrounded by thick black lashes, and her mixed heritage was evident by her copper toned skin and Celtic features.

She gently took hold of his left hand, and led him to a vacant seat next to hers. Once he sat down, Raven introduced him to the other kids in her year's group.

"Guys, this is Loki; he's the new kid and Mother Cassie has asked that we show him around. Loki, I give you the residents of the Eagle Clan. In order, from right to left; first the twins, Katherine and Karl; they're from Germany. She's a witch-in-training, and he's an apprentice spell crafter. In case you're wondering, the two fields, while related, are not the same thing."

"Next is Keisha Adamson from Florida; she's in one of the techie groups. She loves anything to do with computers, whether it's programming, hacking, or just fooling around."

Keisha was a very nice looking African American girl of maybe twelve; her hair in beaded braids, dressed all in pink and lavender, with sparkly nail polish in her fingernails. She waved shyly at Loki, and he smiled at her.

The twins, while not identical in gender, looked very similar in their appearance. Both with blond hair, grey eyes, and fair skinned, they were German to the core.

"Guten morgen, Loki." Katherine stated, winking at him, "This yawning imbecile is my twin, Karl. You must forgive him, for he is not coherent before four o'clock in the afternoon!"

Karl glared at his sister, and then stuck out his tongue at her.

"Hello there, I am Karl. This witch beside me with the inappropriate humor is my twin sister, Katherine. Be wary of her during that time of the month, she gets even worst!"

"Moving right along," Raven stated, before the siblings could start an argument, "To your immediate left is Joanna Macleod of the Clan Macleod. She's one of the warriors in training; mind you don't get on the receiving end of her temper, she can be a meanie."

"Only to those who deserve it," Joanna said wryly in her soft Scots accent. "Hullo there, I'm Joanna and don't mind my friend here, her train of though got stuck at the station!"

Loki laughed and decided that he liked Joanna. She was a solidly built thirteen year old, with dark brown hair, blue eyes, peaches and cream skin, and a very dry sense of humor.

He looked at the massive amount of food on the table in front of him. To his amazement, there were samples of every sort of breakfast food available: pancakes, waffles, porridge, toast, eggs, sausages, bacon, cold cereal, fruit juice, milk, fruit, as well as bowls of toppings for the porridge, which consisted of chopped nuts, and dried fruits like raisins and cranberries.

"Would you like some porridge, Loki?" and older woman, the Housemother asked him and he nodded eagerly.

She served him a generous bowl of porridge and watched indulgently as he topped it off with brown sugar, chopped almods, and cranberries, as well as a bit of milk. She nodded in an approving fashion, and then went to her place at the head of the table to eat her own breakfast.

As the children ate, and gossiped about their assignments, she looked them over fondly. She was genuinely attached to her charges, and made sure that they had everything they needed, (as well as a few things they might actually want).

Cassie was a woman of indeterminate age, with slightly graying hair, twinkling dark eyes, a very generously proportioned figure, and possessed a nearly infinite amount of patience when it came to children, no matter what age they actually were.

Her racial background was very mixed on both sides; on her father's side, she had equal amounts of English, Swedish, Italian, and Spanish, and on her mother's she equal amounts of Native American, African American, Greek and Egyptian. Needless to say, she counted herself as one hundred percent American, and proud of it, thank you!

Without appearing to be doing so, she looked over her newest charge; he would be a bit out of the loop, as all new children were, but she had the feeling that he would settle in nicely.

Cassie had read a fair amount of Norse mythology in her youth, as well as Greek, Egyptian, Celtic, etc. and had a fair knowledge of Loki's background as far as the Prose Edda was concerned.

However, never having been one for comic books as a young woman, she had no idea as to how he had been portrayed by the publishers of the current line. Even if she had, Cassie was never one to hold a child's past against him/her.

To her, all that mattered was the choices that the child was making for him/herself in the here and now. If Loki had been completely untrustworthy, Xander wouldn't have let him in the front door without putting a major binding on the child.

Since the former Zeppo was very good at reading people, she was going to trust his judgment in this matter.

Once breakfast was over, the children dispersed, except for Loki, who was guided to the medical area for a complete physical.

The doctor in charge, a very comfortable looking woman named Sheila Lawson, very quickly put his mind at ease, and it didn't take long for the young godling to strip down to his shorts, hop onto the examination table, and let her do her thing.

Sheila was a very skilled pediatrician, and had a way about her with hurt or frightened children. She was a very skilled empath, and could calm down any child, no matter how frightened or upset they were.

The exam was not invasive in the least….well, except for that bit with the blood sample that she drew from him. Once that little bit of unpleasantness was over, she told him to get dressed, and to go into the waiting room where Mother Cassie was waiting for him.

After he had done so, he took Mother Cassie's hand shyly, and looked up at her. "Where to now, Mother Cassie?"

"Well, right now, we're going to have you sing for Lorne. Once that's done, we give you a scholastic test, to see where you are academically."

"Oh, that sounds all right," he said as they walked down one of the labyrinthine passages.

They finally reached a finely wrought wooden door, where Mother Cassie knocked politely for two seconds.

The door opened to show Lorne, with a big grin on his face. "Hey there Cassie honey! I see you brought the newest recruit! Come on in Loki-bear, I don't bite."

At the term "Loki-bear", the boy's eyebrows went straight up his forehead, nearly to his hairline in surprise. In his entire life, both in his first one, and his current one, no one had EVER given him a moniker like that.

"Now, I am an anagogic demon, and I can see certain things when people sing for me. Don't worry about your past shocking me, Sugarcakes, cuz I've seen some doozies."

"Okay, you asked for it." Loki said, taking up the challenge, "What should I sing?"

"Go up to the karaoke machine and look through the selection. Pick the one you want and sing into the microphone."

With a slight shrug, he did just that. The selection was a wide one, and Loki decided to pick something simple.

He picked out "Reach for the Light" from the movie "Balto", which was a great favorite with most of the kids in the castle.

When he was finished, he was shocked when Lorne picked him up in a bear hug and squeezed the stuffing out of him.

"Oh, you poor little kid! How could your own father do that to you? Either of them? No wonder you turned out so sour! And what a brave thing you did when it came to defeating that Siege menace; I don't think I would ever have had that kind of courage."

"Lorne! Oxygen…becoming an issue!" the boy wheezed, taken by surprise by the demon's strength.

"Sorry about that little one," Lorne said, putting him down, and gently ruffling his dark hair. Loki could see that there were tears of genuine sorrow on his green face, and his eyes were full of sympathy for the child in front of him.

"Well, now to business: your brother is going to show up looking for you. My advice is to listen to what he has to say. He really does love you, and wants you to be happy. As for the old man, let him sweat a little and see just how boring Asgard will be without your presence. Sure, other kids will make mischief, but not on your scale! You were the one that was responsible for keeping them from stagnating, you know; in all of your previous incarnations."

"As for your immediate future; you'll be just fine here with us. Don't sweat the distant future too much; it will take care of itself in due time."

Lorne turned his attention to Cassie, "I'm going to report this to Buffy and the others, Cassie honey. Right now, just take Loki-bear to his next appointment."

_Again with the "Loki-bear"_…the boy thought, not quite sure what to make of the nickname he'd been stuck with. He hoped that none of the other kids were to hear about this; it would ruin him socially.

He looked up to see Mother Cassie smiling at him gently.

"Don't worry about the cutesy name, Loki. He gives them to _everyone_ he meets. Most of the time, they don't mind. And yes, he more than likely will call you that in public. But he'll also do that to the others, so you're in good company."

"How did you know what I was thinking?" he asked, and she winked at him.

"I'm a mother Loki; we _always _know what children are thinking." She said with a smirk.

It was from that moment that Loki decided to never cross this woman. He wasn't about to try and find out the hard way what the results would be.


	4. Chapter 4

27

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Chapter Four

By Raggedygal

Author's note: This chapter gets away from Loki for a bit, and focuses on his brother and how he reacts to what is going on.

Thor flew towards Asgard, plagued by the feeling that there was definitely something wrong with his little brother. Their brotherly bond, recently renewed, was stretched thin, almost to the point of disappearing altogether.

_Please don't let anything or anyone have happened to my little brother,_ was the desperate prayer in his mind. He wouldn't be able to bear it if he lost his brother again, even if everyone in Asgard were to cheer the boy's passing.

_I swear by my father and his father before him that if anyone has hurt Loki in any way at all, they will find no mercy from me. No matter WHO it is. Even if it is my own father, _was the thought that raced through his head.

He alit on the Bifrost, and nodded to Heimdall, who was happy to be back at his post of guarding the rainbow bridge. He didn't stop to exchange pleasantries; he simply went straight to the palace to check up on his little brother.

As he went through the corridors of the palace, he carefully questioned some of the people that he met, asking whether or not they had seen Loki in the past couple of weeks.

When they responded in the negative, he hurried up the many flights of stairs to Loki's tower room. He grumbled as he did so; it was just like his introvert brother to choose a tower that was so damned high up!

When he reached the door to Loki's chambers, he opened it, fearful of what he might find.

All he found….was an empty room. The place was rather dusty from not having an occupant, but other than that it was bare as a bone. The bed was neatly made, the windows clean enough to squeak, and there was nothing else to show that the place had once belonged to a very powerful magician.

Empty.

The room was….empty.

It was then that Thor realized that Loki had done a runner, and he sped back down the stairs to talk to his mother, knowing full well that she saw and heard everything that went on in the palace. She would know where Loki had gone.

However, in this case, he was wrong.

"I am sorry, my son. I have not seen your brother for two weeks now. Perhaps he is off in the forests, skipping out on his chores, or off visiting the dwarves to gamble for small objects."

"No, Mother. He is gone. I checked his room, and it is completely bare. No clothes, no books, no toys. The bed is made and even the bathing room is clean. You know how careless he usually is when it comes to his chambers, the servants complain about it constantly."

Frigga sent a servant up to the tower to check and see if it was as Thor said. When the young man returned and reported that Yes, the young prince's room was bare, and there was no sign of him, Frigga began to fret.

She ordered a complete search of the palace, and went along with Thor to her husband, who was right now, going through the massive pile that was his inbox.

"My husband, have you seen Loki? He is nowhere to be found."

"Good riddance I say," Odin uttered, "I am through with that little liar. The further away he is from me, the happier I will be."

As he spoke, Odin continued to sign and affix his seal to the papers that were in front of him, not really paying attention to most of them.

When he got to the bottommost letter, he quickly signed and sealed it, then tossed it into the outbox for the secretary to file for him.

Thor grabbed it out of the outbox, and read it, his lips thinning and his face turning pale as he did so.

"He's gone." The Thunder God stated, "This is his letter of renunciation. He has left Asgard forever, he says, and has renounced you as his father, and his place in the royal succession."

Odin, taken by surprise, simply sat in his chair for several minutes, trying to process what Thor was saying. Then, quick as a snake, he snatched the letter from his son's hand, and read it himself.

"I can't believe he did this," the old man whispered, "He gave no clue as to what he was planning."

Frigga, deciding that it was her turn, snatched the letter from her husband and read it. As she did so, tears came to her eyes, and her lower lip began to tremble.

"Have we truly been so cruel to him?" she asked quietly, "I thought he was simply avoiding me. He did that, even in his first childhood sometimes."

"Yes, it would seem so," Thor replied. "I knew he was unhappy with the recent turn of events, but I promised him that things would get better. I was planning on moving back to New York and re-open Blake's medical practice there, along with Jane. I was going to take him with me, and we would have built a better relationship."

Odin sank back in his chair, for once looking his great age; tears in his one good eye. He couldn't believe that Loki had finally gone and done it. He had left Asgard forever, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Since the letter was both signed and sealed, not even he, the Allfather could undo it. If they were lucky enough to find Loki, it would be entirely up to the small boy if he wanted to come back or not.

A thought struck him, and he carefully took the letter back from Frigga and reread it. A slight smile appeared on his face as he did so.

Loki had specifically stated in the letter that Odin and Frigga were no longer his parents, but he had _not_ said that Thor was no longer his brother.

"We're going to find him. I will go to Heimdall and see if he has observed Loki in the past two weeks. If he has not, then that means that the little brat is shielding himself somehow. If he has done that, it shouldn't be difficult to pierce the shield and find him." He stated confidently.

Thor merely snorted at that, "Father, this is Loki we are speaking of. If he doesn't want to be found, then he will not be. If he does come back, and if I know him he will; then it will be on his terms. No more, no less."

"Why don't you try calling him on your Stark phone?" Frigga asked, I know that it's been enchanted to work anywhere, even in different dimensions. I know Loki as well; there is no way that he stayed in this one."

Thor tried it, and only got the voicemail. He left a message, but there was no guarantee that Loki would answer it.

Determined, he bade farewell to his parents, and left the great hall.

_When I get my hands on you, little brother,_ he thought, _I am going to tan your backside until it glows in the dark! Then I am going to hold onto you and never let go!_

_You do know that he will resent being spanked,_ came the thought from Donald Blake; _He got enough of those growing up the first time from Odin. He is definitely going to resent any from you._

_I will have to deal with that as it comes, _was Thor's response. _I am worried to death that something will happen to him! I know that he had his reasons for doing this, but this is the wrong way to accomplish it! It is so….so…childlike!_

_He __**is**__a child, _Blake projected, _Remember, he not only looks like a child, he has become one in earnest. That means that he thinks and reasons like a child. Kids are very sensitive to their environment, and he probably thinks that if he's gone, then you won't get into any more arguments with your father._

_I can handle my father just fine,_ Thor sent back, _Loki shouldn't be acting the part of the grownup just yet. That's __**my**__ job!_

_That is very true,_ Blake responded, _but, evidently he feels that he is a burden to you and a strain on your relationship with the old man. Kids hate to feel like they're a burden on anyone._

_Did I truly make him feel that way?_ The Thunder God asked. _If I did, it was not intentional. He may be a royal pest, but he is MY royal pest!_

There was a mental snort from Blake, followed by several moments of silence.

_Maybe you should use Mjolnir to track him down. You've used it to traverse dimensions before, and it should be easy enough to find the dimension the kid went to. Did your mother take a lock of his hair when he was a child as a token?_

_Aye, she did so; why?_

_You can use the magical signature that exists in that lock of hair to track him down. If it were any other method besides Mjolnir, I'd say use the DNA in it, but since this is magic we are talking about, it probably doesn't apply._

Thor pondered the wisdom of this for several minutes, and then grinned in anticipation. There was no way that Loki had remembered about the lock of hair that Frigga had in her possession. If he had, he would have made sure to take it with him.

Thor turned around and went back to his parents. He explained the conversation that he'd had with his alter ego, as well as the solution that Blake had come up with.

Frigga giggled as she listened, and looked at her son with pride in her eyes.

"Oh that is priceless! He may have been exacting in this little plot of his, but he forgot ONE detail. I'll go fetch the lock of hair my son; I'll be back in a trice."

She left Thor alone with Odin, and the blond resolutely refused to look upon his father. He loved the old man dearly, but Odin was getting to be very obstreperous in his old age, and wasn't as willing to listen as he had been in centuries past.

"You are still angry with me," he said, without any recrimination in his tone. To be truthful, he was angry at himself for the way that he'd treated the boy.

"Yes, I am." His eldest stated baldly, "We all had a new chance with him; a chance to have a life free of his malice, his anger, and his pain; and you threw it all away. He may have the face of his former self, but he does not have the same hardness of his heart. This is a little boy who only wants to be loved for who he is, and not what others want him to be. How could you not see that? I saw it the instant I found him; why can't anyone else?"

"Your brother has committed a great many crimes in the past, Thor, you know that." Odin said.

"The past is over with! It is gone and cannot be changed! He DIED! He gave up his life to defeat the Void, making the ultimate sacrifice, and still everyone in his vicinity only wants to punish him for his actions. Isn't dying for one's people enough to expunge his sins? And I had to watch the whole thing happen! I had to watch as my little brother was incinerated from the inside out by the Void, and there was nothing I could do to help him or stop it from happening!"

Thor was in tears as he remembered that awful day. Watching as Loki had used the power of the Norn Stones to empower the heroes that had fought against the Void, only to lose his life. He had watched helplessly as the God of Mischief was blasted into his constituent atoms from the sheer power of the Void, and there had been nothing left of him. Not even his cape or helmet had been spared.

Frigga returned to the throne room, and saw that Thor was highly upset. She immediately went to him and enfolded him into her arms, the way she had when he was a small boy.

"Do not fear, my son. We will get him back. Here is the lock of hair that you asked for." She presented him with a lock of thick black hair that had come from Loki's first haircut as a child.

Of course, he had come to them with a shaved and tattooed head, and it had taken some time before his hair had actually grown in, but that first haircut had been a milestone for the young shapeshifter.

"Thank you, Mother." Was all he said as he took the lock of hair from his mother. He carefully separated one thin strand of the hair from the lock, and attached it to Mjolnir.

: Find Loki for me.: he mentally instructed the hammer, and it glowed an eerie shade of green as it acknowledged his command.

Several minutes ticked by as the slightly sentient hammer checked several dimensions; looking for any trace of the young godling.

When it finally found him, the head of the hammer glowed white, and Thor smiled.

"Mjolnir has found Loki! I am off to bring him back to the family," here he fixed his father with a cold gaze. "That is, if anyone besides myself wants to **be** his family."

Odin paled slightly and turned away somewhat. He was highly ashamed of the way that he had treated Loki since his return from Limbo.

Instead of seeing his chance to forge a new relationship with his youngest, he had let all of the bad feelings of the past ruin things.

"Fetch your brother, my son. He will be welcome in this house. If he is amenable, I am willing to admit my wrongdoing in this, and take him to my heart once again."

Thor said nothing in response to that; he'd believe it when he saw it.

He kissed his mother goodbye, and nodded once to his father, then left the throne room.

Frigga turned to her husband after he left and asked, "Do you really intend to accept him into your heart again? Or is that simply a ploy to get him where you want him, so that you can hurt him again?"

"No Frigga; this is no trick on my part. I want my son back. Have you not noticed how much the Nine Realms have changed since he left? I have; there is no mischief being committed, by _anyone_."

Frigga's mouth dropped open, "But how can that be? Loki was not the only mischievous one in the Nine Realms! There are always children who are skipping out on their chores, telling fibs, fighting with their siblings, and the like."

"And yet, my wife, they are not doing so. I have been getting reports that children all over the Nine Realms are not acting as they should. They are actually doing their chores without complaint; getting along with their siblings and telling the truth in everything they do. Things are so harmonious, it's frightening to behold."

Frigga sank down into her chair in shock, "It cannot simply be his absence that is doing this; there has to be another explanation, my husband."

"You bet yer bippy there is Toots!" an unknown voice said from nowhere.

Seconds later, a young goddess appeared. She was dressed in the fashion of the Greek gods, who were cousins to the Aesir through Jord, who was the mother of all pantheons; a short chiton, high laced sandals, curly black hair bound back with a ribbon, wearing a simple belt at her waist.

Her name was Harmonia and she was the Goddess of Harmony. Normally, she didn't have a lot to do with Asgard, as it was outside her normal jurisdiction. But now, it was a special case.

Long ago, she had made friends with Loki, back in the dim days of their early childhoods.

From the instant they had met, the two had been completely comfortable with each other, and Harmonia was just about the only person that he hadn't played a prank on, or insulted.

She looked at the two older gods and smiled. "Y'see, Loki asked me to do him a teensy weensy favor before he left. He told me that the one thing you wanted in Asgard was harmony; no lies from him, no fights with Thor, no plots against your throne. So, he asked me to give you the harmony that you want so badly. Now that you've got it, get used to it, cuz it ain't going away any time soon. TTFN or Tata for Now."

With a tinkling giggle, she disappeared in a shower of glitter, and Frigga turned to her husband, who was now pinching the bridge of his nose, as if to stave off a headache.

"I hope you're happy," was all she said before she walked out of the throne room, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

Thor stood at the foot of the rainbow bridge, Bifrost, and looked over at Heimdall.

"Do not be concerned my old friend. This is not the first time that Loki has deceived you and gotten past your vigilant glance."

"Still, I ask forgiveness. Your brother is a known trickster, and I should have been prepared for such a thing."

Thor snorted, "I have known him since he came to live with us when he was five years old, and still, I do not pretend to understand how his mind works; not completely anyway. There is no way you could have guessed what he was up to. When he wants to, Loki can be the most devious little imp in the galaxy."

A rare smile crossed Heimdall's face. "Aye, indeed he can. How will you find him? I cannot see him anywhere on Midgard."

"I will use Mjolnir to track down the relevant dimension. First I will make sure that he is all right; then I will go to fetch him."

Thor removed Mjolnir from his belt, and used it to open a viewing portal to the proper dimension.

There was a swirl of light, and slowly the picture came into focus.

The two men saw Loki, wearing the casual garb of Midgard, sitting at a table having breakfast with a group of children, getting along with them like a house on fire.

The girls of the group were all very pretty, and of differing racial groups; Asian, African-America, European, etc. The boys of the group were just as mixed, and at the head of the table was an older woman keeping a watchful eye on them.

Once the meal was over, a slip of paper was passed to each child, more than likely a class schedule and they were all dismissed to go to their classes.

Loki, being of a genius intellect, more than likely would be in a class of children with like interests, and it turned out that Thor was right.

The class, though small, boasted the smartest children in the school.

The teacher, a red headed woman with green eyes greeted them.

"Good morning class, welcome to Ethics in Magic 101. My name is Willow Rosenberg, and in this class, you will learn the ethics of magical use. Now, some of you will no doubt be asking, "Why?" and it is my job to teach you why."

The lesson continued, and to Thor's amazement, Loki did not look bored or troublesome during the lesson. Instead, he looked interested, and actually paid attention to what the teacher was saying.

The class was dismissed a half hour later, and the children all went off to a science lab.

"I have seen enough to get a fix on his position. Wish me luck, old friend. Convincing Loki to return home with me is going to be a task of monumental proportions." Thor said.

"Will you punish him for running away?" Heimdall asked. "He deserves no less than a sound spanking for doing so."

"How many of those has he gotten in the past, Heimdall? And all they did was cause a huge amount of resentment and anger. I may give him a couple of swats, not too hard mind you, but I will not make a spectacle of it as Odin did. That was the worst part of it, Loki being humiliated in such a fashion in public. It is no wonder that whatever love he had for the old man died so quickly."

"Good luck my lord; I will keep watch for the two of you."

Now that Heimdall knew the coordinates for that dimension, observing Loki and Thor would be much easier.

Thor opened up a dimensional portal and stepped through it, closing it behind him.

Heimdall simply stood at the foot of the Bifrost and waited as he always did; ever vigilant and watchful in his duty.


	5. Chapter 5

22

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Part 5

By Raggedygal

Loki had been at the Slayer Academy for the past two months, and was fitting in pretty well.

It turned out that a lot of the so-called 'geeky' kids had actually read the comic book put out by Marvel, and while a lot of them liked Thor as a character, a surprising number of them were actually more sympathetic to him, on account of how he had been treated by Odin.

Sadly, there were a lot of kids at the Academy that had come from bad environments; drug addicted parents, abusive homes, and other such horrors that would give even the Aesir nightmares.

He had been moved into the boy's dorm of his particular age group, and shared a room with three other kids. Each boy had a four poster bed, a clothing press, and there was a communal bathing facility where the hot water never ran out, and the towels were as big as bed sheets.

The comforters on the bed were all silkscreened with a picture of a large bald eagle sitting on its nest. The children were all in charge of changing their own linens, and making sure that their dirty laundry was put into the appropriate laundry chute.

There were no mix-ups due to name tags sewn into the necklines, and waistbands of their clothing. Their socks were all monogrammed with their initials, and Loki had taken some good natured teasing about having the same initials as Lex Luthor from the Superman comic book.

His only response had been to blow a raspberry in that person's direction, and promptly ignore them for the rest of the day.

That had been followed by an incident with itching powder in that kid's undershorts, but he'd had nothing to do with it, seeing as he'd been in the library at the time it happened.

Watching that boy go crazy trying not to scratch had been funny though.

Mama Cassie had simply looked at Loki, and quickly understood that he hadn't been the culprit behind the prank. (He hadn't, it had been Raven, along with Katherine and her brother Karl).

She'd simply kissed the top of his head, ruffled his hair, and sneaked him an extra cookie, winking at him.

Loki had simply giggled, and eaten his cookie.

Today, he got out of bed at his usual time, fed Ikol his usual breakfast of bird seed, and dried worms, then dressed for the day.

For some reason, though, after breakfast was over, he simply couldn't concentrate on his classes as usual.

Gladys Roberts, who was the English Literature teacher, noticed his inattention during the lesson, and called him over to her after class was done.

"Loki dear, whatever is wrong? You're not usually this distracted."

"I don't know, Miss Roberts. I have the feeling that something is going to happen soon. Something big; but I don't know what it is."

Being a teacher in a school where precognitive abilities in the student populace were pretty much the norm, she accepted his explanation.

"I'm going to send you down to talk to one of the Seers. Maybe they can get a fix on what's happening."

"Okay," was all he said as she wrote him a note excusing him from classes for the rest of the day.

He went to the section of the castle where the resident Seers kept their metaphysical eyes on the future. While they couldn't see ALL of the futures involved, nine times out of ten, they did manage to see the most likely ones.

There were only three of them, and for some reason, they reminded the small godling of the three Norns, who lived at the bottom of the tree Ygdrassil, and knew the present, the past and the future combined.

Although, they were MUCH prettier to look at then the three withered old women were.

The oldest of them, a plump motherly type named Lily looked up as he cautiously peeked around the semi open door of their chambers.

"Loki! Darling, whatever brings you here?" she asked, welcoming him into the large comfortable room.

"I've got a funny feeling," he said, "There's something coming; something really big, but I don't know what it is."

"Hmmmm…..something big, eh? Well, you just sit yourself down and tell us all about it. Oh Lynette! Maura! We have a case in the making!" she called out to her sister Seers, and one by one, they filed into the room.

"What's all the hubbub, Lily?" Maura asked. She was in her mid twenties, with curly red hair and deep sea green eyes. Her nose bore a smattering of freckles, and her figure was slim and petite.

She spotted Loki and broke out into a grin, "Well look who it is!" she said in a bright tone, "Loki honey, what in the world brings you to our section of the castle?"

Lynette, the youngest of the trio in her late teens, entered the room. She was a willowy blonde, with fair skin, sky blue eyes, and looked rather like a china doll.

The three women gathered around him, offering him tea and cookies, as well as a comfortable footstool to sit on.

They listened to what he had to say as they drank their tea; given that he was just as precognitive as they were, if not more so, his tale bore listening to.

"Well now," Maura said, "We'll take a look at the webs of the future and see if there's anything in the making, after that, we will plan accordingly."

The four of them carefully settled into the lotus position, and focused on whatever it was that was disturbing Loki's feelings.

When they found it, only the three women were surprised. Loki wasn't really surprised at all.

The disturbance that he had felt was his brother coming to fetch him home. They observed the golden haired god coming toward their location silently for a few moments, then pulled themselves back into their bodies.

"Comments, sisters?" Lily asked.

"He's not taking this child back to that environment without a fight." Maura stated. "We don't have any guarantee that he'll be treated any better than he was the last time."

"I agree," Lynette said, "I came from an abusive family, and I know that I'm still not ready to forgive them for all the crap that they put me through. I say we tell Buffy and the others; they'll know how to deal with this."

When Buffy was told, she became very thoughtful. Legally speaking, the Slayer Academy didn't have a leg to stand on, because Loki literally didn't exist in their reality.

While she had the utmost faith in Willow's ability to create an identity for him, anyone working for Children's Protective Service would want to know why he didn't have any school records, immunization records, baby pictures, etc. It would be more than a bit awkward to explain that the child in question was well over two thousand years old, was only human in looks, and was literally too intelligent for words.

"We'll wait for him to show up, and then we'll make a decision." She said firmly,

"Don't worry Loki; we won't let you go without a fight. I know that you love your brother, but no one in their right mind would want you to go back to those people; not unless they do a complete 180 degree turn in their behavior."

The boy nodded, and let out a breath he hadn't even known he'd been holding. He sagged against Xander's side, and looked up at him with those devastating green eyes.

"Will you be there too, Xander?" he asked, and the larger man grinned at him, with a touch of the Hyena attached.

"Sure thing Loki; my hyena likes you a lot for some strange reason. To her, you're a cub in need of protection, no matter how old you really are. That's why she insisted that I bring you into the castle."

"Do you talk to her much, Xan?" Buffy asked, "I thought that she had mostly faded."

"The time I spent in Africa looking for new Slayers brought her out in full force. There's some scary shit on that continent, and there are creatures there that would have the Master pissing in his pants, if he were still capable of it. They'd also regard young Loki here as a tasty tidbit, and I'm not about to let THAT happen to any kid that's in my care."

He ruffled the boy's hair, which was a mess of Harry Potter-esque proportions, making him giggle. Loki was glad that he had adults like these looking out for him; he more than likely _would_ have ended up as some Upper Demon's dinner if he'd stayed completely on his own.

He thought about his life since he had come to the Slayer's Academy, and was pleased with the way things had gone.

Life had changed a great deal for the young godling in the past two months, mostly due to the influence of his friends and the adults around him. When it had been discovered that he wasn't used to being hugged or embraced in any way, the girls in the Eagle Clan had made it their business to change that.

Raven had started the whole ball rolling by kissing him on the cheek one day after he'd helped her understand a part of magical theory that she simply couldn't get.

He had looked at her in shock, his eyes practically bugging out of his head; wondering what had possessed her to do so.

"Doesn't anyone kiss you back at home, Loki?" she'd asked, seeing the look on his face.

When he'd shaken his head, 'no', it had been her turn to be shocked.

"Boy! Is your mother a cold fish or something? My mom is one of the mushiest people I know; she kisses _everybody_ in the family!"

"What for?" he'd asked, genuinely puzzled by that kind of behavior. Frigga had always been very affectionate with Thor when they had been boys, but for some reason or another, she'd never really shown him that kind of feeling.

"To show people that she loves them, silly! Doesn't your Dad give you any affection?"

He'd shaken his head, 'no' again, and by this time, the other kids had gathered around to listen to the conversation.

"Your Dad's a dipwad," Karl had stated, unequivocally. "My Dad may be a little bit aloof in public, but in private, he's a big softie."

Now, it seemed, he couldn't go a day without one of the teachers, or one of the girls in Eagle Clan hugging the stuffing out of him. The boys, being the manly-man, non-touchy-feely types, settled for mock punching him in the shoulder, and mock pushing him a couple of steps, (he reciprocated in kind too, giggling the entire time).

It felt kind of….nice. Strange, but nice; however, getting him to initiate a hug was another story. The ONLY person he had ever hugged willingly was Thor, both in his previous childhood, and his current one. He simply didn't feel comfortable enough with anyone else to do so, except for Mama Cassie.

There was something about her that he simply couldn't explain, and that kind of bothered the little godling.

She didn't represent a danger to him in any way, he knew that right off. But there was an 'otherness' about her; one that was different from any of the other people in the castle, and he couldn't quite identify it.

Late that night, Loki had a nightmare from his past. His screaming woke everyone in the dorm, and caused Mama Cassie to come running into the room.

He was sitting bolt upright in the bed, screaming in terror, his face wet with hysterical tears, and Cassie wasted no time asking what had happened. She simply hauled him, blankets and all into her arms and carried him out of the room.

"You boys go back to sleep, I'll take care of him."

Cassie took the hysterical pre-teen into the common room, and settled them both into a cushy rocking reclining chair. Loki clung to her like a leech, still yowling from whatever horrible images his subconscious had thrown at him.

After a while, he began to calm down, his screams fading to sobs, which then faded to the odd hiccup. The entire time, Cassie simply rocked the chair, and rubbed his back, murmuring soothing nonsense to him.

Willow came by, bringing two cups of hot milk, and a large box of tissues, which she left on the side table for Cassie to use later.

Once Loki was calm, Cassie helped him to blow his nose, and gave him the milk to drink. She sniffed it, and found that it was dosed with a generous amount of honey, which was guaranteed to put anyone to sleep.

"Loki honey; what were you dreaming about? What scared you so bad?"

"The dwarves sewed my mouth shut," he answered, and Cassie's eyes filled with tears when she heard it.

In the Norse Mythology, THAT particular tale had managed to piss off nearly every adult in the castle, including Cassie.

To her mind, there were other punishments that could have kept Loki's previous self from lying, but the Aesir being what they were, they had gone for the most torturous, bloodthirsty punishment there was.

"Did your father allow that to happen, Loki?"

"Yes," he said, yawning hugely, "He said that I deserved it for what I did. The dwarves did it in front of the entire court, and everyone was laughing at me while I was screaming and bleeding on the floor."

Cassie continued to rub his back as she rocked the chair. For a parent to allow that to happen to his child, adopted or not, meant that the person in question didn't deserve said child. Not even if that child were an adult at the time.

"Were you a grownup, or little?"

"I was grown," he answered, still sipping at the cooling milk. "I managed to get the stitches out with Sigyn's help. When Thor found out he was furious, and said some awful things to Odin. I don't really remember everything he said, but it was nasty."

Loki finished the milk and settled his head against Cassie's shoulder, utterly exhausted from his emotional storm. His eyelids started to droop, and eventually, he dropped off to sleep.

Ikol, who had awoken with the others, had watched the byplay between woman and boy with a critical eye.

"What have you to say, Master Ikol?" Cassie inquired, "Say what's on your mind."

"There is more to you than what you are, milady." The magpie stated, looking at here with sharp eyes.

"That there is little one; that there is. You, of course, will keep your beak shut. My secrets are my own. They do not concern you or this child; all I will way is that I am no threat to anyone here."

She turned her eyes on him, and looked straight into his beady black gaze. Her eyes changed color several times, and Ikol found himself frozen to his perch at the sheer depth of…._power_ that was there.

There was more power there than even Willow had, or Odin, or anyone that he had ever met in his life.

With a flash of insight, Ikol then _knew_ who she was, or more precisely _what_ she was.

He bowed his feathered head to her in sheer awe. "My Lady, forgive a wretched bird for his presumption. I had no clue that it was You who was caring for these children."

"I am, and I am not. You might say that Cassie and I are birds of a feather. She is my friend, and occasionally, my mouthpiece. She is also my priestess, and has been for a very long time. My secrets are safe with her; as are _yours_."

Ikol bowed his head again, and flew off to his regular perch to get some sleep, breathing a sigh of relief at keeping his feathered hide intact.

Cassie gathered Loki into her arms, and carried him back to his bed, where she tucked him in firmly, and kissed him on the forehead.

"No more nightmares for you, little prince; may you have sweet dreams from now on."


	6. Chapter 6

24

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

PART 6

By Raggedygal

Author's Note: Let me say this: WHOA, NELLY! So many reviews! So many Story Alerts! So many Favorite Lists!

Thank you one and all. This is the most attention I've gotten since I started writing.

All questions will be answered in the next couple of chapters.

Now: Onto the story!

Thor flew through the vortex that Mjolnir had created, its rectangular shaped head glowing with a pulsating light that was warm and comforting.

He knew that he was going to be in for a fight to get his little brother back from the protectors of the castle that he'd taken sanctuary in. While part of him yearned for battle to prove his worth, another part of him warned him that to make war on warrior maidens not even of marriageable age, and children was extremely uncouth; not to mention unworthy of a Prince of Asgard.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity of travel came to a halt as Mjolnir opened up a portal to the correct dimensional plane, and Thor exited the trans-dimensional wormhole.

The castle that he'd seen in the vision was about three or four miles away; for it would have been the height of stupidity for him to land directly on their doorstep, as well as extremely rude.

He landed neatly on his feet, placed his hammer in its belt loop, and started walking. As he easily covered the distance, Thor reflected on what he'd learned from his vision.

One: There were Seers in the castle, who had probably warned the protectors of his arrival.

Two: Said protectors would more than likely meet him at the castle gates, loaded for bear, especially the one-eyed man, the tiny blonde, the curvy brunette and the sweet-faced redhead.

Three: He was going to have to sweet talk the lot of them in order to even _see_ Loki, never mind take him home, and that had never been his strong suit.

Four: If Loki was truly happy here, and the blond Asgardian's instinct told him that he was, he was going to have to sweet talk _him,_ into coming back home; again, something that wasn't his forte.

When they had been growing up the first time, Loki had been the one to sweet talk Thor into getting into all sorts of scrapes, most of which had ended up with the young blond boy getting metaphorical, and sometimes physical egg on his face.

Of course, once Loki's role in the whole thing had become evident, he'd been on the receiving end of a spanking from Odin, once or twice in full view of the court. That had been the part that Thor truly hated, for what happened between them was private, and not something to be crowed about in front of the nobles of the Aesir.

'_I will not allow that to happen to him again,' _he thought grimly. _'Odin was wrong to punish him in public the way that he did. What happens in the family should have __**stayed**__ in the family! He certainly didn't punish __**me**__ in public, but then that's favoritism for you.'_

Blake countered that with, _'Not that Loki didn't deserve to have his hide tanned I notice.'_

'_Oh aye, he did at that!' _Thor agreed with his alter ego, _'There were times when I could see the joke for what it was, and laughed accordingly, but there were times I simply wanted to pound on him for getting on my nerves.'_

'_Which you did, a little too often,' _came the thought, and Thor stopped in his journey for a moment.

''_Tis true,'_ he sent back, _'It has been that way between us for too long, and I swear that it will stop. I may still lose my temper with him, and get angry at his antics, but I will __**not**__ abuse him. Not for any reason.'_

Blake was silent then, and Thor continued his walk up to the castle.

As it came within sight, he noted that his earlier suspicions had proven to be all too true: Nearly everyone of fighting age and ability was there at the gates, loaded for bear with swords, maces, axes, crossbows, longbows, spears, shields and someone in the back had a rocket launcher aimed straight at him.

The people he'd seen in the vision were directly in front of the group, scowling at him.

The tiny blonde was carrying a scythe that fairly glowed with magic, her eyes like green ice. She wore black leather pants, a blue top, a Kevlar vest and he could honestly swear that she was _growling_ at him.

The one-eyed man reminded him of a younger version of Nick Fury; the same height and build, the same dark hair and grim visage, the same eye patch over his left eye. The only difference was that Nick usually carried a firearm; this young man carried a nasty looking axe and from the way he held it, he was clearly an expert.

The brunette bore a hammer in her delicate hands, which rather reminded him of Mjolnir, except that the handle was longer, and the head was definitely of troll make. She had a somewhat…feral expression on her face, and he knew that if he made one wrong step, she'd do her best to turn him into paste with her hammer.

The redhead was off to the side a bit, and she floated in the air, a couple of feet off of the ground, crackling with power. She actually had a mid sized ball of fire in her hands, and while he was fairly invulnerable to ordinary fire, he wasn't toward magical fire.

Being no dummy, Thor simply bowed to the entire lot of them in respect and said, "I am Thor, of whom you have heard from my errant little brother. Is he about?"

The tiny blonde had an excellent poker face; giving away nothing of what she was feeling.

She answered his question, "Right now, he's in art class with his age group. What is your purpose here, Thunder God? Are you going to force us to hand him over to you, just so you can take him back to Asgard and be treated like crap by the other members of your race?"

"Nay my lady, such is not my intention. I simply want to talk to him and see if he is happy here. If I am able to convince him to come home, I swear by my great-grandfather, Buri, that he will not face any ill treatment from those of Asgard. I will not be raising him there at any rate."

She raised an eyebrow at him, and made a small gesture to those that stood behind her; they immediately stood down, but kept their weapons at the ready.

Thor smirked inwardly; she had this group well trained, it would seem. Not even Sif could get her Shield Maidens to work together that well in a group.

"My name is Buffy Summers, and this is Slayer Central. To my right is my General, Alexander Harris, only ever called Xander; to his right is Willow Rosenberg, our resident expert on magic. To my left is my second in command, Faith Lehane."

The lithe brunette casually twirled the hammer in her grip as if it were a cheerleader's baton, while the one-eyed man shifted his grip on his axe.

The little redhead extinguished the fireball in her hands, and stepped back to allow him to come forward.

He noticed that he did NOT receive any kind of verbal invitation, and that there were an assortment of runes, hieroglyphs, and spells mystically etched into the stone pillars of the gates, which were made of a special type of alloy.

If he were any type of expert, he'd suspect that they were the closest thing this dimension had to adamantium, for it gave off a similar feel to his senses.

The sea of young girls and women parted for him, and he could feel dozens of pairs of eyes on him, waiting for him to either be rejected by the magic of the wards, or to be accepted.

The wards flared up for a moment as they probed his being; he could feel the tingle of the ambient magic in them.

Even though they had not been in place for very long, the wards felt almost as if they were sentient in nature; judging him for any kind of ill intentions that he might be harboring.

Thor calmed his mind, and projected his need to find his little brother, and make sure of his safety and happiness to the wards. After a moment, they accepted him, and he passed through the gates with no harm.

Behind him, he could hear a great many voices grumbling in several languages as bets were won and lost, and money was passed around amongst the girls.

He only just managed to keep a straight face as his sensitive hearing picked up a comment along the lines of, "Tall, built like a brick shit house, blond, a god, and naturally, he's not interested in anything but his _brother_. Life _sucks_!"

As they all trooped into the castle, a school bell rang, signaling the end of the current class being held, and a great many children flooded the hallways, chattering a mile a minute, loaded down with books, messenger bags and backpacks.

He spotted a very familiar dark head and called out, "Loki, 'tis I Thor!"

The small boy froze on the spot, and turned to look at his elder sibling.

Time seemed to stop as they looked at each other, then started up again when Loki threw down his backpack and ran straight into his brother's arms, shouting, "Thor! Thor! You're here!"

The pre-teen jumped into his brother's embrace, and found himself being nearly squished to death by his brother's beefy arms.

"Little miscreant," Thor mock growled, "If you ever, _ever_ pull a stunt like this again; you'll be grounded for a thousand years!"

"Help! Thor! Oxygen….becoming an issue!" Loki wheezed, and Thor loosened his hold on him, although he did not let him go.

Loki pulled back to look at his brother's face, and to his surprise, actually saw tears in the blue eyes. Of all the reactions he had expected from Thor, this hadn't been one of them.

"I have missed thee, little brat." Thor said, slipping into the Alltongue. "The kingdom has been altogether too dull and boring without thy presence there."

Loki simply smirked at that. "Is Harmonia having fun? I did ask her to drop in and give the Allfather what he wanted," this was said with the most innocent face he could pull off. It was the sweetest, most innocent, puke inducing expression in his repertoire, and was a sure indication of him being extremely smug.

"That face stopped working when thou didst hit thy teens the first time, little brother. What makes thee think it would work now?"

"Wishful thinking?" Loki countered brightly, and Thor actually laughed.

"To answer your question," he said, falling back into modern English, "Harmonia is having the time of her life making sure that Father gets exactly what he wanted."

Loki's face nearly split itself in two with the _evil_ smile that took up residence on it.

"_Kewl_!" was all that the small boy said, as everyone started laughing.

With the tension dispelled, Buffy led them to the main briefing room for what promised to be a looooonnng discussion.

Five hours later, the discussion finally drew to a close. In that time, Thor had become thoroughly acquainted with the Slayers, Watchers and Witches, and he now had a profound respect for them all.

He had also learned just how deep Loki's past physical, emotional and psychological abuse had run. Oh to be sure, he had often deserved to be punished for his pranks, for he had been a mischievous little thing.

But he hadn't known just how badly the other Aesir had treated his brother. They had often insulted him to his face about his Frost Giant parentage, muttering dire predictions about how bad he would turn out to be as an adult.

Odin, for whatever reason, had done little, if anything about the verbal abuse. Of course, he had often thrown Thor's accomplishment's in the younger boy's face too many times to count, and that hadn't helped much either.

However, despite it all, the two brothers had been very loyal to each other. Until the poison in Loki's soul had finally broken through to the surface, and turned him against his brother and father. His pranks had rapidly turned malicious, and even dangerous, until Odin had put him into prison.

It had only served to cement in Loki's mind that Thor would always be the favored son, no matter what he did; so he did as he pleased.

Even recently, with his little brother's resurrection, after dying at the hands of the entity known as The Siege, people had _still_ gone about making dire predictions, and even threatening the boy's life.

Thor, who had asked the Warrior's Three to keep an eye on Loki when he couldn't, had been so occupied with getting rid of the God of Fear, that he hadn't known what his little brother had been up to.

To think that the boy had broken a Helwolf out of confinement, tamed it with the enchanted bridle that he used on his goats, formed his own covert black ops team, and even managed to take out several of the key players of The Serpent boggled the Thunder God's mind.

He also learned that afterward, Loki had simply put the Helwolf back in its cage, returned the bridle, and finished cleaning up the horrid pile of goat droppings in the stable before going to bed, without saying anything to anyone.

After that, he had been ignored by nearly everyone in the palace, including his own parents, who went about their own business restoring Asgard to its former glory. They hadn't even seen to it that he was fed regularly, or that he was kept occupied; forgetting that a bored Loki was also a dangerous Loki.

Loki had been forced to go to the kitchens and ask for food, very often getting small portions that did nothing to satisfy him; do his own laundry, mending and cleaning his own room.

That had been when the other children had noticed that with Odin and Frigga not caring about him, they had decided to make him their target, knowing that his past reputation as a liar would guarantee that he was ignored if he complained, or fought back.

"I don't blame you for running away, Loki." He'd said to his brother before they broke for lunch. "But why didn't you go to Jane? Or Jennifer Walters?"

The boy had simply shrugged at the question, "They were all busy recuperating from their own fights, and I didn't want to be a burden to them."

He shook himself as the group left the conference room, leaving him alone with Loki.

He had to admit, he hadn't seen his little brother this happy in a long time; probably not since his first, long ago childhood. The people here at the castle accepted him, in spite of his past and the evil that he had committed.

Xander had said, "We've all done stupid shit in our lives. A lot of us have done evil shit as well as stupid shit. Who are we to judge him for what he did as an adult? He literally died to save others. That means that what he did in the past, _stays_ in the past. No ifs, ands or buts about it."

"He's got a new life now," Dawn had piped up, "Your fellow Aesir need to get their heads out of their asses and focus on the future, not the past."

Loki had sniggered at her use of language, and she had simply winked at him.

After that, the discussion had been tabled for another time, as now, it was time for lunch.

"Could we go to lunch now, Thor?" Loki asked. "I'm hungry."

"You're _always _hungry. You have a bigger appetite than Volstagg." Thor replied and Loki grinned at him.

"Remember that eating contest a few hundred years ago, between the three of us?"

Thor grinned back, "How could I forget? To this day, the palace cooks fear your stomach more than any prank you can pull."

"Hmf. They should consider it a compliment to their cooking."

"It was a LOT of work for them, though."

Loki thought for a minute, "Well, you're right about that. Next time, I'll just take part in a hot dog eating contest and blow away the competition."

Thor laughed, "Come now Loki, let's go to the dining area and see what's to eat."


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note:

I am changing my username from Raggedygal to JannaKalderash from here on in.

From now on, all stories posted will reflect the change in name.


	8. Chapter 8

23

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Part Seven

By JannaKalderash

**ASGARD**

The Warriors Three were concerned about their friend, Thor, who had gone off in search of his runaway brother. It had been a total of three weeks, and still there was no sign of his return.

While he was often absent from Asgard for much longer periods than a mere three weeks, they usually had some idea of where he was and what he was up to.

The only thing they managed to get out of Heimdall was that Thor was in another dimension, that he and Loki were fine, and that they would return soon; which really wasn't all that helpful to them.

Sif, who had never liked Loki, even in the days of their long ago youth, was perfectly happy that the little trickster was gone from Asgard. The fact that Asgard was now boring as all Hel went straight over the brunette's head.

"Who cares if he's gone?" she asked nastily, "We're all better off without the little blight anyway. With any luck he will show his true colors and then Thor will realize what a mistake he made in bringing him back from the grave. Child or not, he should have drowned him in the Seine when he found him."

The three simply stared at her in shock. While it wasn't uncommon for Sif to make disparaging remarks about Loki, she wasn't usually this vitriolic about it. Usually, for Thor's sake, she managed to tolerate the child's presence, and kept her tone civil when addressing him.

Now that he was gone, it seemed that her inhibitions had gone as well, and she was saying what she really felt.

Fandral glared at her; while he and Loki had never really been anything like friends, he had some appreciation for the other's sense of humor back in the day, and now that he was a child, was somewhat fond of him.

Hogun, who was usually silent on everything, stated, "He has changed from when he was an adult, Sif. This is not the same Loki that we knew. He has a chance at a new life, as do we all now that the cycle of Ragnarok is over, the Siege dealt with and the Serpent destroyed. He has not engaged in one prank or act of destruction since then, and you speak of killing him?"

"It is a trick of his to lull us all into a false sense of security. He has always been that way; even when we were children the first time. He cut off my hair!"

"It would have grown back, you vain little brat." Volstagg growled, "It wasn't as if he kept your hair from growing at all! But you went whining to Thor about it, and he of course took it out on Loki, who procured a new set of locks for you. He ended up with his mouth being sewn shut for it in front of the court, as you remember."

She snickered, "That was a sight to see! The Liesmith with his lips sewn shut! I thought it hilarious, and so did a great many others! Even Odin said that he deserved it."

"And how did Frigga react to that? As I recall, she punted that wretched little duergar out of the castle, and forbade him from entering ever again. I also recall she slapped the snot out of you in front of everyone else, before taking Loki to the healers." The huge man stated, puffing on his pipe thoughtfully.

"There are other ways to insure that truth is spoken;" he continued, "Odin could have used a truth spell on him, but he allowed Loki to be harmed in order to 'teach' him a lesson. The only thing that boy learned was that his own father couldn't be trusted to defend him."

He finished his pipe and tapped out the tobacco before turning to Sif again. "I have seven children, Lady Sif; five blood children and two adopted. And if anyone, _anyone_ were to do such a thing to _any_ of my children, they wouldn't live to tell the tale. Never mind what my wife would do; I would kill that person. She'd make them _wish _that they were dead. Yes, he has been the most evil being our race has ever produced, but that was in the past."

He edged closer to her until he was practically in her face.

"So, do not let me hear any words of killing pass your lips concerning that child ever again, my lady. Otherwise, I will take drastic measures. I may act the buffoon, but tell me truly, am I such?"

Sif had to shake her head, 'no' at that. For all his bluster and good humor, Volstagg was exceedingly dangerous, even with his enormous girth. There was nothing he wouldn't do for Thor, and since Thor had asked him to look after Loki in his absence, the big man had done so.

He had even taken the boy into his own home, where his wife and children had welcomed the small godling with open arms, a large plate of food and a goblet of milk. It had been the one place in Asgard where the boy had been accepted as a child, and not tolerated as a reminder of his past self.

Loki had found a great many friends amongst Volstagg's great brood, from the eldest, Hildy, right down to the baby. Even the two adopted Midgardian children loved him. They all shared a sense of harmless mischief, and were always trying to outdo each other in their pranks on each other.

Volstagg's wife was truly upset that the youngster had left without so much as a peep, but if he had let on his plans to anyone, even his new siblings, they would have ratted him out to their mother, and she would have taken him in hand to keep him from running off.

She was worried about him, and had confided as much to her husband more than once.

He had assured her that Thor was, even now in search of the errant princeling, and would bring him home soon.

For the sake of peace in his household, Volstagg hoped that Thor would return to Asgard soon. There was only so much placating he could do when it came to his wife. If she had to wait much longer, she'd go looking for them herself, and that wouldn't be a pretty thing.

**MIDGARD: THE BUFFYVERSE**

Loki had recovered from his nightmares, thanks to the doctors and counselors at Slayer Central, and right now, stood at the gates with his backpack on his back, stuffed full of all the goodies he had scored for his birthday, which had fallen two days prior.

His friends had gone all out, and nearly everyone in the castle had gotten him something, as well as the other kids who shared the birthday with him.

For one thing, the cake had been GINORMOUS! It had been a huge chocolate sheet cake, covered with lime green frosting (white frosting with lime green food coloring), and matching filling. On it had been the names of the children in question, along with numerical candles indicating their proper age.

Since Thor hadn't been altogether too sure of Loki's actual physical age, Willow had done a mini-magical scan of him, and had come up with the age of 13, which was respectable.

The music had been lively, although the older adults had lamented what they called 'noise', and the fact that kids today just didn't understand real music. No doubt their parents had said the same thing during the early days of rock and roll, and their grandparents during the age of swing and doo wop.

The presents that Loki had received had made anything he had gotten in his past life look pale by comparison.

Willow had gotten him a magical 3D puzzle with over 10,000 variations to it, and it could even be enchanted to create even more.

Xander, ever practical, had gotten the boy a shortsword, complete with a gorgeously worked leather scabbard and baldric, along with a set of beginner throwing knives that were enchanted to never grow dull.

Buffy, not to be left out, had commissioned a pair of gorgeous young boy's boots from a master cordswain in Italy. They were guaranteed to last five years of hard wear and tear, or your money back. Right now, they were a bit big on him, but he would soon grow into them. They were black with silver knotwork buttons on the side, and super tough soles.

Dawn had put her mother's old sewing machine to good use, and had made him a cape with a reversible lining and detachable full cut hood. It was of a deep forest green, with a black iridescent lining that appeared almost liquid in its appearance.

Faith had gotten him leather bracers with hand engraved Norse knotwork, and a matching belt.

He had also scored books, CD's, comic books, candy, money, as well as other items of clothing that included a sweatshirt with the saying "Rule One: Don't Die! Rule Two: Remember Rule One!" and a Tshirt that said "I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every single minute of it!"

However, like all parties, it had finally come to an end at around three or so in the morning, and a rather pooped out young godling had been carried to his bed by his very amused elder sibling (who had a great many pictures on his Starkphone of his little brother enjoying himself. Their parents were going to kick themselves when they saw them! He mused.)

"Ready to return home, little brother?" Thor asked with a slight smile as Loki was nearly hugged, kissed, nuzzled and noogied to death by Buffy and her friends.

"Yes Thor, I'm ready." Loki said, looking very rumpled, red faced, and glad to be free of so many solicitous females.

Thor picked Loki up and settled him on his shoulder. He twirled Mjolnir in the proper pattern, and a great white light enveloped the two Asgardians. A huge clap of thunder resounded as the wormhole closed, knocking everyone off their feet.

There were a great many giggles all around as Buffy picked herself up muttering, "Stupid show-offy gods from another dimension," before she stomped back into the castle.

The last to return to the confines of the castle was Xander, who looked over in the direction in which their friends had left.

"Take care of him, Thor." He said softly, "He's a very special child. And if your father treats him like dirt again, I think I'll introduce Buffy to him…along with her Scythe."

**MARVEL UNIVERSE: EARTH 616**

Thor and Loki landed upon the Rainbow Bridge easily enough, and Thor placed his little brother on its surface so that he could walk the rest of the way on his own.

"Will we ever go back?" Loki asked, "I really liked it there."

"It will be difficult, little brother. I have the feeling that you were allowed to go there for a specific reason; you and Ikol both needed the healing that Mother Cassie and the others provided. I was allowed there to truly understand the depth of what had happened to you, and find my own healing. However, I have the feeling that the Powers That Be in that universe would not make it as easy for us the next time."

Loki pouted a bit at that. He had found a sense of welcome and a true home in that universe; it was sad to think that the Powers That Suck would keep him from visiting his friends.

"Do you have any ideas on the Powers, brother?" he asked, "They don't treat their Champions very well; most of the time, they are too focused on the battle and not on the Champion."

"I have one or two. I think that their version of Gaea will not be too pleased at the way her daughters are being treated. From what I learned Sineya was a descendant of hers, and that when the Shadowmen forced the demon into her, she was very put out with them. However, she wasn't allowed to interfere, due to the free will clause."

"That never stopped _us._" The small boy pointed out.

Thor snorted in genuine humor, "That is certainly true, but our universe operates under a different law. We do interfere, on a certain level; but I think that is because we are being _allowed_ to do so. As long as we do not seek actual worship, we are allowed to operate on Midgard. Even our cousins, the Olympians still interfere to a certain extent; Zeus and Hercules among them."

Loki made a bit of a face at the mention of those two names. He considered Hercules to be a muscle bound buffoon, who never took the consequences of his actions into account, not until everything was over and done with. That and he really wasn't all that bright. Not even Thor at his worst was that stupid.

Zeus, on the other hand was an even bigger control freak than Odin was. The two older gods recognized this in each other, and detested the other accordingly, being far too much alike to get along with each other.

Oddly enough, Loki had always managed to get along with Hera, and the various females of the Greek/Roman pantheon.

Maybe it was due to the times he had spent as a female in the far distant past that made it so; not that he really _remembered_ it.

But most of his feminine cousins had always had a kind word for him whenever he came to visit, as well as a feast that would rival anything Asgard could come up with, and a party afterwards that would be talked about for _decades._

The two greeted Heimdall in passing, and he nodded in return, smiling slightly, although neither sibling really noticed it.

Once the two had returned to the palace, they were ushered into the throne room, where Odin and Frigga awaited them.

The Queen needed no urging; the moment Loki reached the foot of the throne, she ran to him, swept him up in her arms, and began begging for his forgiveness, weeping copious tears the whole time.

Loki, who had always had a better relationship with Frigga than he'd had with Odin, forgave her easily, and put up with the display of maternal affection while his brother chuckled at him from his position behind them.

"'Tis almost as much affection as Buffy and the others gave you upon our leaving," Thor said with a slight smirk, causing his brother to turn his head and stick his tongue out at him.

"Very mature, my son" Frigga stated drily, placing Loki back on his own two feet so that he could face the All-Father.

To the boy's surprise, he actually saw tears glimmering in the one good eye his father had. He had gotten many reactions from the All-Father throughout the millennia, but tears had never been one of them.

"Loki? My son? Can you forgive an old fool who has been blind in more ways than one? I truly did not know what I had until you were gone; and then when Harmonia showed up and made Asgard into a crashing bore, that was when I understood your true purpose here."

Loki, who could smell a lie at fifty paces, knew that the older man was telling the truth. He moved tentatively closer to him, looking directly into his blue eye.

"I forgive you…._this time._ Next time, I might not. You're really going to have to work on being a father, and not a king with me."

"Fair enough, little one." Odin said, before he pulled the youngster into his lap for a tight hug.

"Believe it or not, I did miss you. Now, would you _please_ call off Harmonia? I think Asgard is going to fall asleep in the same manner as the Sleeping Beauty if things go on much longer."

"All right," Loki said with a grin, "You have to admit, this was one of my best pranks _ever_!"

"Indeed it was." Odin admitted, "I certainly never foresaw you pulling anything like _this._"

Harmonia was summoned, and she cancelled the spell that was affecting the Nine Realms.

All over the archipelago of asteroids, children everywhere began causing mischief to different degrees.

Brothers and sisters quarreled over toys, chores, lessons, and who was loved most by their parents.

Puppies began chasing kittens all about, yapping happily while the kittens hissed in displeasure.

Pranks were pulled; little bitty fibs were told; great big whoppers were told (usually by fishermen or hunters regaling their friends about the one that got away: "I swear! That stag had a _HUGE_ rack of antlers _THIS BIG!_")

In other words, Asgard returned to what was considered normal.

Loki, Ikol, Thor et al would go on to many more adventures in the future.

Thor would die, and return from the grave (AGAIN!) stronger than ever; Asgard would be rebuilt (AGAIN!), and find that the people of Midgard weren't as primitive as they thought.

The people of Midgard would find that the Asgardians weren't such bad neighbors to have, in spite of the truly bloodthirsty natures that they had.

But those are tales for another time.

_FIN._


End file.
